Am I pressing my luck?

[StaciaZ]

I live in Des Moines, IA and the chicken laws here are very friendly. They'll allow you to keep up to 30 chickens as long as they are at least 25 feet from neighboring residents. They don't even have any rules against roosters, as long as their noise doesn't become a nuisance. My next door neighbors have been very welcoming of my new flock and no one seems bothered by them at all so far.

I have a flock of 10 8-week old chickens but even though I got sexed pullets, one of my Barred Rocks is actually a cockerel. He hasn't started crowing yet, so I really don't know how loud he'll be, how early he'll crow, or how often he'll crow.

He's a beautiful and friendly bird, so I'm considering trying to keep him just to see whether he'll cause a problem or not. The coop is actually 200 feet away from the nearest houses. Is it worth giving it a try, or would I be better off getting rid of him now just to make sure I stay on good terms with everyone?

 

[Indigosands]

No harm in giving it a go, worst comes to worst you'll have to get rid of him anyway. I've known a few people that put their roo in a dog crate in the garage overnight with a blanket over it to keep him from disturbing the neighbors before a reasonable hour. Mine is about the same age as yours, and if he winds up being a noisy guy I will probably do the crate thing even though we're allowed to have them.

 

[sammark]

Ask your neighbours if they would find him to be a problem, i had a similar problem only with geese i asked my neighbours both sides if they would mind if i kept them as geese can be very noisey, luckily for me both neighbours were over the moon and very happy for us to keep them. Honesty and communication is the best policy good luck i hope you get to keep him!

 

[StaciaZ]

I'm just a bit worried that I'm being naive to think that it will work out. If we'll have to get rid of him anyway, it might be better to do it before we've caused our neighbors to be upset.